


Embracing Slytherin

by Sometimes_I_Fall_Into_Fantasy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Good Death Eaters, Harry Potter is a Horcrux, Harry Potter is the Heir to the House of Black, Heir of Gryffindor Harry Potter, Heir of Slytherin Harry Potter, Mentor Tom Riddle, Mentor Voldemort (Harry Potter), Mild Weasley Bashing, Molly Weasley Bashing, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Dorms, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Ron can be a prick, Sane Tom Riddle, Sane Voldemort (Harry Potter), Severus Snape can be good, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Sporadic Updates, Wandmates, asexual author, when he's not a bastard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27772702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sometimes_I_Fall_Into_Fantasy/pseuds/Sometimes_I_Fall_Into_Fantasy
Summary: When Dobby comes with his letters before second year Harry embraces his Slytherin side and opens up his world to possibilities that didn't used to exist, but he still has to fight back against the hold Dumbledore has on him.Au starting Second Year, but most main events follow until the end of fourth year.Soulmates are linked to wands and then you get a symbol that either represents your partner, both of you, or your relationship.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini, Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum, Ron Weasley/Original Character(s), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 119





	1. Summer part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, Kasper here, so this is my first long fic, and the first fic I truly intend to finish. I wouldn't really expect much in the way of consistent updates as I've had the first two chapters in the works for over a year. But I am now mostly confident in my first chapter and most of the way through my second and actually have more of a plan for the first summer.  
> I do know exactly how fourth year goes down, and this is my comfort story so know that I think about it often.
> 
> I'll explain Wandmates more in depth in a few chapters, but I do want to point out that I came up with the idea after reading about the different wood types on Pottermore where jk wouldn't let Olivander shut up about woods being attracted to other woods.  
> I have not - in any way - factored what wood types characters have into who is soulmates with who.

Harry had spent the summer feeling alone. His friends, could he even call them friends?, had not sent him a single letter all summer. He often thought of his time in Hogwarts that, thanks to the complete lack of communication, was starting to feel more and more like a dream. The only truly new things in his life was the room he slept in, Dudley’s toy room. A mess of stuff that wasn’t Harry’s, not even called Harry’s room, was an amazing upgrade from the cupboard under the stairs. Even if some days he wished he could go back to the tiny room he grew up in, if only to be surrounded by familiarity and all of his things that got locked up down there at the beginning of the summer.

But instead he was here, in a room that wasn’t his and without most everything that reminded him of his true home. 

Thankfully Hedwig was allowed to stay with him. She was a constant reminder that Hogwarts had been real, that he had friends that probably cared about him, even if they didn’t write.

Of course they were friends.

They had nearly died together, there was no way that Ron and Hermione weren’t his friends. They were probably just busy having a great summer with their families. It isn’t like Harry had told them about how the Dursley’s hated him. And they definitely didn’t notice that they didn’t once contact him over the school year, not even for Christmas. They didn’t even ask why he didn’t go home for Christmas, Hermione did so they couldn’t possibly assume it was just because he was raised by muggles. But could Harry really blame them? They were 11, and they had perfect lives, who in that situation would think that anyone experienced anything different?

Harry had had this conversation with himself many times over the summer. He found that every time he thought about why Ron and Hermione weren’t mailing him he would become more and more convinced that they never would, that they truly didn’t care about him.

So he took to distracting himself from his depressing lack of true friends by thinking about all things magic. He had once overheard someone talk about a trunk that was hundreds of times bigger on the inside, to the point that it could be made into a flat of sorts. It’d have a bed and a bathroom and a kitchen and other such necessities. He thought about getting himself charmed jewelry that could protect him from Voldemort in an assortment of ways, or would allow him to contact his friends like a phone.

He began to wonder if there were other types of magic that weren’t taught at Hogwarts, types that were too specific and were instead taught at the wizarding version of a University. He wondered if there was a wizarding version of a university.

He wondered for hours about his future in the wizarding world. He had started thinking about being an auror, but he didn’t have a lot of knowledge on all the different types of wizarding jobs. He supposed he could be a professor at Hogwarts, he loved it there after all, or he could be a shopkeeper, though he didn’t really have anything to sell, or he could be a ministry worker, but he’d always hated politics especially when Uncle Vernon talked about it, and that was about all the options that Harry knew of. He didn’t feel particularly inclined to any of them, not even being an auror. Sure some of them had upsides or sounded vaguely interesting, but none of them really called out to him. That could change, he supposed, he was only 11 after all what did he know about what he wanted to do for the rest of his life?

He was just thinking this one night, where he was upstairs in Dudley’s toy room being quiet and pretending not to exist on his bed staring at the ceiling as if it had all the answers when he heard a pop. When he sat up on his bed, wondering if anyone downstairs had heard it and then, almost as an afterthought, what it had been in the first place, that he saw a short, long eared, big eyed fellow wearing a pillowcase for clothes. Somewhere in the back of his mind the word house elf came to mind, but he didn’t really notice it’s presence as he was overcome with the one idea of ‘oh god, something magical in my room when there's guests downstairs. I must get him out, he has to leave before anyone realizes he’s here’.

Before Harry could whisper scream a harsh “Go away” the being spoke, “Mister Harry Potter, sir?”

“Yes?” Harry wasn’t quite sure why his reply wasn’t what he had planned, maybe it was the surprise that this small creature knew his name, something that really shouldn’t come as a surprise to him anymore, but either way his whispered out response came and seemed to make the thing quite happy.

“Oh Dobby is very happy to meet Mister Harry Potter sir, it’s quite an honor, quite an honor indeed Mister Harry Potter sir.” The creature began to speak and it was here that he wondered why the creature had come to him, and on this particular night too, surely it couldn’t be just to sing Harry’s praises.

“That’s all well and good – Dobby was it? – but if you would just keep it down we can talk about what it is you are doing in my room?” Harry tried to be as kind as he could with his words. This creature was obviously easily excited, he just hoped that it was just the right amount of pleading desperation that came with his, hopefully, calm tone.

“Mister Harry Potter wants to know what Dobby is doing in Mister Harry Potter’s room?” The creature, Dobby, said, thankfully quite a bit softer than when he had started talking.

“Yes Dobby, what are you doing in my room?” Harry asked and then immediately took the couple extra seconds he got from Dobby’s slight hesitations to listen in to what was going on downstairs. Thankfully he could hear the sounds of regular conversation and the slight clattering that signified that people were eating.

“Dobby is protecting Mister Harry Potter sir.” Dobby answered. His ears drooped just a little and Harry wondered if he was trying to emotionally manipulate Harry or if the poor thing really expected him to be mad.

“And why do you need to protect me?” Harry asked. He tried to fight back any frustration he had with the small thing, it didn’t really seem to know any better.

“Mister Harry Potter sir is in danger.” Harry fought, valiantly he might add, against the urge to roll his eyes and vigorously shake the small thing and demand clearer answers.

“In danger from what?” Harry asked, watching as Dobby quickly got his guard up and started casting his eyes around warily, like something would jump out of the shadows and eat him at any moment.

“Dobby can’t tell Mister Harry Potter sir, Dobby’s masters would be very angry if Dobby said anything.” After this he seemed to tense more, and Harry thought that he might have just reminded himself that, whoever these masters of his were that they’d be very angry with Dobby if he were here at all.

So Harry, ignoring the feelings of sadness and curiosity that came with the word ‘masters’ quickly grabbed Dobby by the shoulders and tried to distract him, “then why are you here, Dobby?”

When Dobby’s eyes settled back on Harry and away from his nearby lamp they were filled with a strange sort of guilt and sadness and Harry didn’t dare let go of his shoulders. He could almost feel his magic seeping out of his fingers and willing the small being to stay in his grasp. Dobby, still talking in a hushed whisper just like Harry’s own said, “Mister Harry Potter can’t go back to Hogwarts next year.”

This confession took Harry by surprise, so much so that he almost let go of Dobby. He could feel the faint hints of the imagination that it was his magic that kept him and Dobby stuck together as they were. Harry knew this to be false however and didn’t think another second about it as he asked, “Why can’t I go to Hogwarts?”

At the question Dobby jerked, as if to get away, but was unable, his eyes darted around, scared once more of the shadows ready to eat him. “Dobby can’t tell that Mister Harry Potter, masters would be very angry with Dobby.”

“Okay, okay,” Harry tried to placate the poor creature so that his distress didn’t lead to raised voices or any other loud noises, “you can’t tell me why. But I have to go back to Hogwarts next year, it’s where all my friends are at, it’s my home.”

“Friends that don’t mail Mister Harry Potter sir?” This sentence dumbfounded Harry. He now understood why it would seem that Dobby was scared that Harry would be angry with him, because now he was angry.

Without letting go of Dobby, Harry asked, in a much more dangerous whisper, “What do you know about my friends not sending me any letters?”

Dobby’s eyes went desperately to the lamp on Harry’s bedside table , as if it could help him, but locked in Harry’s grip as he was he was unable to go to it and so, eventually, his eyes slid back to Harry’s. “Dobby has Mister Harry Potter’s letters sir. Dobby was keeping them so that Harry might not want to go back to Hogwarts where he had no friends.”

Outrage soared through Harry, but then also understanding. And then suddenly, as if he’d been thinking it up throughout the conversation, no through the whole summer, Harry had a plan. So Harry gave into his Slytherin side, the side that would do anything to meet his ends and asked, “If I say that I won’t go back to Hogwarts next year, will you give me my letters back?”

Dobby’s entire demeanor brightened at these words he stopped struggling against Harry’s hold and vigorously nodded his head, “Yes, yes of course Mister Harry Potter sir. If Mister Harry Potter sir promises to not go to Hogwarts he can have anything Dobby can give.”

Harry quickly shushed Dobby, who had gotten slightly louder in his excitement and let go of him now that he seemed soothed and not about to go off the handle at any moment. “Okay, then I’m going to need one more thing besides the letters.” At Dobby’s nod of approval Harry continued, “I need you to take me to Diagon Alley, I’m going to need some things if I am to survive a whole year outside of Hogwarts.”

Dobby, now obviously more hesitant with the mention of Diagon Alley, though soothed once more when Harry said he wouldn’t be going to Hogwarts, nodded along with Harry’s demand.

“And,” Harry added, only now thinking about possible repercussions should some part of his plan go wrong, “afterward you can’t come back here ever again. Is that understood?”

Dobby nodded once more, so hard Harry feared his head popping off with the force of it, and said, “Of course, Mister Harry Potter sir, Dobby not come back unless Harry calls him.” At this he took out a rather thick wad of letters and handed it to Harry.

“How do I call you Dobby?” Harry asked, not wanting to make him upset again by saying he wasn’t going to do that.

“You simply must say Dobby’s name with the intention of wanting Dobby near. Mister Harry Potter’s magic will do the rest.” At Harry’s understanding nod, though in truth he barely understood what was just explained to him, Dobby said, “Dobby will see Mister Harry Potter tomorrow,” and promptly popped out the same way he popped in.

Harry spent the rest of the night reading each one of his letters from his assortment of friends. After he had read every letter he’d missed over the summer, one from Ron explaining how his mom was so worried about him that she was this close to sending out a rescue party, he started writing his replies.

He wrote Ron’s first, placating him and sending a calming message about how Hedwig spent so much time away that it was quite difficult to send replies, but it ended up being so long that after he finished it he sent it off and went to sleep, planning his escape from number 2 Private Drive and all the things he would buy in the Ally the next day.

Page Break

When Harry woke up the next morning he wondered if he should regret lying to Dobby the night before. He had no intention of not going to Hogwarts next year after all and he had seemed to be only trying to help Harry, though he was very misguided. But, in the end, Harry couldn’t regret the decision. He needed out of his awful relatives’ house and a more substantial reminder that the wizarding world existed outside of his owl.

Harry couldn’t wait to have more magic on his side to help him survive the summer with the Dursley’s.

So Harry went down stairs and politely told Aunt Petunia that Mrs. Figg had requested him today so he would spend the whole day at her house. Aunt Petunia gave him a very disapproving grimace for not telling her sooner and then almost yelled at him to leave immediately as he’d better not be late.

Harry, quite happy at how easily he’d been allowed out of the house left quite quickly and started heading for Mrs. Figg’s house and hoped Dobby would find him before he made it. Halfway there Harry decided that he’d try the whole ‘calling’ him thing and said, with as much determination and want as he could manage, “Dobby?”

It seemed to have worked because no sooner had Harry finished saying the elf’s name was there a pop and there he was. “Mister Harry Potter sir wants to go to Diagon Alley now?”

Dobby’s hands were wrapped in bandages and for a brief moment he wondered why, but he quickly tabled the question, Dobby didn’t like talking about things, or he couldn’t talk about a lot of things and Harry didn’t want him to freak out and leave when he was this close so he just said, “Yes, thanks so much for this Dobby.”

Dobby seemed quite happy at the thanks and smiled as he took Harry’s hand and with a pop Harry found himself, alone, on Gringotts steps.

Harry, slightly surprised at Dobby’s forward thinking, quickly went into the building as he would be needing money for his, very in depth, shopping trip.

Walking into the large room with the tellers high above his head he was just as amazed as the first time he had seen it if not more so now that he was less scared of the Goblins and more interested in them. Binns had, of course, droned on and on about the goblin wars of who knew how long ago, but they were much more fascinating in person. In person they were people too, not just stories on a page that was much too boring to read.

As he was walking up to the first free teller he saw it occurred to him that he’d need his vault key. Hagrid had taken it back after taking him on his first ever trip to the Wizarding world. Harry was quite unsure how to go about getting in without it.

Crossing his fingers behind his back he hoped, and would have prayed had he been in any way religious, that the teller would be in any way kind or understanding and said, with as much confidence he could muster while looking nearly straight up at where the Goblin was, “I’d like to withdraw some money from my vault.” He flinched at his own voice, but still looked hopeful as he looked up at where the goblin loomed over him.

“And what would be your name?” The goblin seemed irritated as they asked the question.

“Ahh, sorry, my name is Harry Potter,” Harry replied and, not wanting to make them more irritated by having to ask added, “and I don’t have my key, it was never given to me after my first trip here.”

The goblin seemed put out when Harry said that, but nodded anyway and turned to one of the goblins standing at the ready to take customers to their vaults. “Take Mr. Potter to the head of the Potter vaults.” One of the goblins came up to Harry, sadly not Griphook though it made Harry wonder just how many goblins worked for the bank and what all the different jobs were, and started leading Harry out of the main teller room, down a hallway that looked like it went on forever, and to a door labeled Ironfist.

After the goblin knocked on the door and a voice from behind it said enter he left. Harry thanked them quickly and opened the large, rather ornate door and slipped inside.

The room made Harry feel rather small because of the floor to ceiling bookshelves that lined three of the four walls, the fourth wall was behind the goblin sitting at the desk facing the door Harry had walked through and was mostly window, and the high desk the goblin sat at that was taller than Harry.

The goblin sitting at the desk seemed to be looking through some papers and didn’t look up when he, Ironfist seemed like a masculine name, told Harry to sit. Harry, after being told, was quick to cross the couple of meters to the tall chairs – making the desk much easier to interact with once sitting – from where he had been standing semi-awkwardly right in front of the door. Harry waited patiently for Ironfist to finish whatever he was working on. He had his hands folded in his lap and was looking about the room at the many books wondering what they were about or if they were filled with bank related information. Absently Harry wondered if Ironfist was in charge of more than just the Potter vaults.

Harry, in his observation of the room, did not see when the goblin looked up from his work and the half startled look on his face as if he was not expecting it to be Harry that had wanted a meeting with him. He quickly got over his surprise however, and said “Mr. Potter, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever have the chance to meet you when Hogwarts started and you had not come to receive your heir ring.” When Harry whipped his head around, after suddenly being spoken to it was to see a stern, if slightly amused goblin looking at him expectantly.

“Heir ring? I was unaware I was supposed to come and get ...whatever that is. I’m here to get a new key as mine was never returned to me after my first trip here last year Mister Ironfist sir.” Harry was quite nervous saying this as he had always found goblins quite scary and he really didn’t want to make one angry, especially not the one that was in charge of his family’s money.

Ironfist leaned forward at this, a concerned look on his face. “It is concerning Mr. Potter that you are not informed about your heir status, however we will start with this missing key issue. To do a key retrieval we must first confirm that you are the owner of said key with a simple blood test. Given that you have yet to do an inheritance test to find out what lordships you will gain when you come of age and vaults that have been willed to you we can do that test at the same time and you can go over your future and current inheritance while we summon your key. Is this acceptable Mr. Potter.”

Harry, thrown by this sudden new information, simply nodded in reply. He wondered why no one had brought up his future Lordships, which, with the way that Ironfist was speaking, seemed guaranteed. Going through the people that should or could bring it up, it was Hermione, Dumbledore, and, a small part of him added, Malfoy that stuck out as strange to have never mentioned it. Hagrid, who really should have brought him here in the beginning, probably didn’t really have any idea how this stuff worked, Ron took all of his knowledge taught to him from birth for granted and wouldn’t have put any thought to the fact that Harry knew nothing so them not saying anything seemed perfectly normal. Hermione on the other hand had done lots of research on the wizarding world, surely she would have known that he, as a Potter, should have an heir ring, Malfoy would have definitely known about stuff like this, given his pureblood up-bringing, but he didn’t bring it up once, not even to make fun of his lack of heir ring, and then there was Dumbledore, who surely, having known his parents and his many years, would have known that the goblins at Gringotts were expecting him. Harry put it out of his mind with a simple thought that maybe Dumbledore thought that Hagrid had taken him, Hermione didn’t know something, and Malfoy was simply an unobservant prick as Ironfist brought forth two pieces of parchment, both the same size, and an ornate knife.

“You will take this knife to cut into your finger, three drops of blood to each parchment should give us the information we need Mr. Potter.” Ironfist scooted the parchments with the knife across the desk into Harry’s reach as his arms were a bit too short to hand the knife to Harry.

Harry quickly did as he was told, wincing slightly as he cut a little deeper than was necessary letting exactly three drops of his blood fall onto each parchment. Once he was finished with the second parchment he placed the knife back as close to Ironfist’s reach as he could and watched as the two parchments were filled out the second parchment growing as more and more room was needed to document his inheritances.  
As the first parchment completed he read it before pushing it back into the reach of Ironfist.

Harry James Potter  
Birth: 31 July 1980  
Death: Alive  
Mother: Lily Potter nee Evans. (Deceased)  
Father: James Charlus Potter (Deceased)  
Godmother: Alice Longbottom nee Rosier (Incapacitated)  
Godfather: Sirius Black (Incapacitated)  
Guardian: Petunia Dursley nee Evans  
Magical Guardian: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Harry wondered why no one had never told him that he had godparents, though ‘incapacitated’ did make it seem like something awful had happened to them. Harry noted their names for later and promised himself he’d look into what happened to them, see if there was anything he could do to make them once more capable of caring for him. Dumbledore being his magical guardian also through him for a bit of a loop. Harry figured that being his guardian in any shape or form gave the man rights, why was he still living with the Dursleys if Dumbledore himself could take him in, or why hadn’t Dumbledore visited him as his secondary guardian?

Harry didn’t dwell on these questions long though as he was very curious as to why his inheritance sheet was so long. He, once it completed which took a good couple of seconds longer than the first, picked it up and read over it, though he truly didn’t understand much of it at all.

Harry James Potter  
Houses  
* Paternally  
^ Maternally  
*Noble House of Potter  
*Ancient and Noble House of Black  
*Venerable House of Gryffindor  
*Most Ancient and Noble House of Peverell

^Noble House of Pothkett  
^Venerable House of Slytherin

Vaults  
Potter  
779 (Lordship)  
654 (Lordship)  
667 (Lordship)  
487 (School Vault)  
462 (Other)  
339 (Heir)  
256 (Personal: James Potter)  
225 (Personal: Lily Potter)  
Black  
798 (Lordship)  
797 (Lordship)  
554 (Heir)  
323 (Personal: Sirius Black)*  
Gryffindor  
998 (Lordship)  
925 (Heir 1) *  
924 (Heir 2) *  
923 (Heir 3) ^  
922 (Heir 4) *  
Peverell  
843 (Lordship)  
797 (Heir Ignotus)  
Pothkett  
423 (Lordship)  
402 (Heir)  
Slytherin  
997 (Lordship)  
906 (Heir 6) *  
905 (Heir 5) ^  
904 (Heir 4) *  
903 (Heir 3) *  
902 (Heir 2) *  
901 (Heir 1) *  
Other  
43 (Personal: Gratia Willitia)  
70 (Personal: Thomas Hartherot)  
86 (Personal: Hatherma Verthot)  
145 (Personal: Vallerie Shasth)  
287 (Personal: Markett Justimuss)  
*Cannot access because requirements are not met  
^Can access as requirements have been met (Only shows symbol if similar vaults show other symbol)

Harry stared for a long moment at the sheet. He was unsure of the difference between paternal and maternal, but he figured that paternally meant father as that was how the House of Potter was labeled. He questioned how it was that he had inherited houses from his mother seeing as how she was a muggle born, but quickly moved on after looking at the extensive number of vaults he owned. The other section also surprised him as they were all personal vaults of people he had never met, though he did figure that it had something to do with his boy-who-lived title.

Harry quickly pushed over the long piece of parchment into what would have been Ironfist’s arm reach, however while Harry was distracted reading through all of the inheritances Ironfist had left with the first piece, presumably to get Harry’s key.

This left Harry with, what he assumed to be, a couple minutes of alone time in the goblin’s office. He quickly got bored staring around the room and trying not to fidget too much, but was not willing to get out of the tall chair and risk getting caught and in trouble because he had been snooping around the office so he forced himself to sit as still as he could and focus on the things he would buy once he left Gringotts.

As soon as Ironfist came back into the room, from a side door Harry noted, he climbed back on to the chair behind his desk pushing a small rectangular box that was open across the desk for Harry to take saying, “The key to your school vault Mr. Potter.” Before he too looked at the inheritance sheet. Once he finished reading he said, “Once you claim those personal vaults you have claim to you will also gain keys for those vaults, as you are not yet of age the heir vaults will be open to you, but only once you gain the heir ring corresponding to the vault.”

Harry nodded along with what Ironfist was saying. “Do I have to wear all the rings?” Harry asked once Ironfist had stopped speaking and seemed almost like he was waiting for Harry to say something.

“No,” Ironfist said, a small smile playing on his face though it was quickly removed and his expression turned back to that of a stern, semi-annoyed person, “you need not even claim all of the heir ships if you do not want, but, if you do and don’t want to wear all of the rings you can get a spelled chain to put them on so that they will stay with you much like they would were you wearing them in the conventional manner.”  
Harry nodded along once more, “Ok, I’d like to do that then. Umm, how do I claim the heir ships and personal vaults?”

Ironfist looked up from where he was making a note to get Harry the spelled ring chain and writing down all of the personal vaults and heir vaults that rings and keys would need to be gotten for and said, “You must simply ask to claim the heir ship and personal vaults, the claim will simply be denied if someone else has claimed the heir ship or the personal vault is unavailable for any reason.”

“Okay, so ...I'd like to claim all the heir ships and personal vaults available to me.” Harry said, though there was one more thing he wanted, which he quickly added once he saw that Ironfist was once more leaving his chair, “Oh, is there any way for me to withdraw money from my vaults without having to take a trip here every time?”

Ironfist, who had been maneuvering himself to climb down, instead shifted back into his seat and said, “You can purchase a coin purse that can connect to a personal vault that is sealed with your blood, this would also mean opening up a personal vault for yourself.”

Harry nodded and said, “I’d like to do that too.” Harry stopped here trying to remember everything he had ever overheard about banks. “How much money is in the personal vaults?”

Ironfist’s small smile came back for a second before he said, “How about I go and see what claims went through and then we can talk about all of that.”

Harry nodded in reply and Ironfist once again left through the small side door. This time Harry had to wait much longer, and he could not stop himself from fidgeting quite a lot. He was excited and nervous for when Ironfist came back, he couldn’t wait to get his shopping done, and all of this heir ship stuff was starting to hit him. He had absolutely no idea what being an heir meant. He was also planning a day that he could come back to Gringotts and explore the vaults he would soon have access to, a day when he didn’t already have plans and could spend hours going through all of the stuff.

Harry was mid-daydream about swords and ancient tomes deep in Gringotts when Ironfist returned holding multiple boxes and more pieces of parchment than he had when he left. He was just about to ask if the goblin needed help when Ironfist levitated the boxes and parchment the foot or so up to the desk and heading for his seat, now without need for Harry to help.

“All of your claims went through, here are the keys,” Ironfist opened up a number of boxes all containing keys and set them to the side, Harry didn’t reach for them. “And these are the heir rings,” This time Ironfist handed over the boxes as he opened them naming them as he did, he also handed over the spelled chain necklace once Harry put on the Potter heir ring and it was obvious that he wasn’t going to don any of the others. “And these are a list of the assets in each vault you have access to.”

Harry couldn’t get through the first page of assets before he just focused on the large number of galleons in the personal vaults, he did take note that some of the vaults had a list of properties and promised himself that he would look into what those were later.

Once Harry was pretty sure he knew the amount of money in the personal vaults he said, “I would like to combine the ...assets in the personal vaults into my own personal vault ...to be linked up with the…..change purse.”

Ironfist nodded and opened a drawer, pulling out a key and a knife that looked identical to the knife that Harry had previously used, though that one was still clearly sitting on the table where Harry had left it after he had used it. “To open a vault and to transfer funds will require a fee,” here he stopped and Harry replied, after shuffling through his many papers, that he could take it out of the Potter heir vault, “you will put two drops of blood on this key and then I will attach it to a specific vault, this will allow the purse,” here he picked up a small black bag, “to be linked to the vault once you do the same to it.”

Harry nodded and reached for the knife once Ironfist handed it to him, dropping the required amount of blood onto the ring, where it promptly did the same. Once Ironfist had the key in hand once more he asked where Harry wanted his personal vault, which Harry then said he wanted as close to if not his mother’s old personal vault. Ironfist nodded and said that he could have his mother’s personal vault as his own. Once Ironfist was done joining key and vault he told Harry that he could drop the required amount of blood onto the bag. Once his drops hit the blood seemed to move about on the bag until a red Potter crest was on the side of the bag where he’d dropped the blood.

Once everything in that area seemed finished, Harry asked if he could keep his papers on his vaults and, after being given the affirmative and being told that the vault should be ready for use in about thirty minutes, climbed off the chair papers and bag and hand, thanking Ironfist for his help as he left the room.

It didn’t occur to Harry that he had no idea how to get out until the door had shut behind him and he felt too embarrassed to go back in and ask. Luckily enough for him he took one step in what he thought to be the right direction and found himself exiting the office area completely. He giggled to himself just a little at the amazingness of magic before folding his papers in half and sticking them and his new purse in his pocket.

On the steps of Gringotts he debated where to go first, he would need a trunk to keep all of his new stuff in, but he figured that the new clothes he wanted were going to take a while. He decided on going first to do his clothing shopping, going into every store that sold anything even close to clothing (there was an armor store and Harry wasn’t going to pass up the chance to have that extra protection) getting fitted and ordering things from a formal wear, casual wear, the armor shop, Madam Malkins, and what seemed to be a muggle styles shop.

After he was done with the fitting and the stores told him that they would have his clothes done by the time he got back, Harry headed over to the trunk shop he’d seen on his first trip through Diagon Alley.

Upon entering he saw stacks and stacks of trunks, of different sizes and colors, some of which seemed to have been pre-owned because they were in various states of disrepair. Harry headed in the direction of the desk, debating getting a trunk that looked older so that the Dursleys didn’t realize that he had bought something for himself.

The clerk, a youngish looking man, looked up and greeted him with a bright smile that seemed somewhat forced, “Hello, what can I be doing for you today?”

Harry hesitated only a second to think of what he wanted exactly and said, “I’d like a trunk with multiple rooms and a regular packing space.”

The clerk nodded and took out a couple of pages and said, “We have multiple options of rooms and styles, and all trunks come with a regular packing space. What sort of rooms were you looking for?”

The pages listed different styles, one compartment for all the rooms or having the different rooms sectioned off with different passwords, and rooms, work or rest areas. Harry scanned them quickly to make sure he could get what he wanted and said, “I’d like a set of living compartments - a kitchen, bedroom, and basic living area all together – a library room separate, and a potions lab separate.”

The clerk nodded and said, “That’ll be 600 gold to put in a trunk, plus the cost of whatever trunk you choose, the cost of adding charms – if you want them - and the cost of adding whatever cosmetic changes you may want.”

Harry nodded and said, “I’d like a trunk that looks worn, but is still in good working order, all the charms available to be put on it, and I’d like the Pothkett crest on the inside.”

The clerk nodded and went off to get a few trunks that met the description for Harry to choose from. When he got back Harry made his choice – a faded gold colored trunk that looked well-worn on the outside, but looked brand new on the inside – and the clerk put the spells on the trunk, which took 20 minutes, after which the clerk showed Harry how everything worked – the shrinking charms and switching between compartments – Harry paid and, once out of sight of the clerk, put his papers on his vaults into the basic compartment of the trunk. Once they were tucked away into his trunk he headed off to Flourish and Blotts in the hopes of filling at least a small portion of his new library compartment with something that may give him a hint as to what this great magical world was actually all about.

Harry walked every aisle picking up every book he thought interesting or informative enough that he may learn something new about magic and all its amazingness. He picked up lots of books on warding and protection spells as well as books on magic affinities, rarer, more powerful forms of magic and a few on the wizarding worlds laws and politics. He spent a small amount of time debating whether or not to get some of the fictional books written about him, but decided against it as they weren’t going to tell him anything he didn’t already know.  
When he was done with his shopping, spending an amount of time putting all his new books away into his library, he headed in the direction of colorful or strange stores that might have something interesting in them. He wondered the whole of Diagon Alley going into every store that caught his interest, but staying off the different allies that branched off of Diagon and were unfamiliar to him – though he did note them for later as some seemed rather interesting. While wondering the interesting stores that were in Diagon Alley Harry found a small array of things that he found interesting enough to buy including a thick leather cuff bracelet that had dragon engravings on it and some strange squiggly symbols that had turned into the words “Light tomorrow with today” in the dragons fiery breath, and a rather ornate looking letter opener that looked like a tiny version of the sword of Gryffindor, which he’d seen a picture of in the Hogwarts library when he’d been looking for books on the Philosopher’s Stone, he'd even stopped by Olivander's and got a wand holster for his wrist and a wand cleaning kit. He wandered into a store that sold potions supplies and bought some of all the ingredients, though he only recognized a few, and packed them away into the potions lab in his trunk. Then, on his way back through the clothing stores, picking up his new outfits he saw a small shop that he had missed on his first passes while looking around at stores that might hold interesting artifacts.

It was squished between two rather ostentatiously decorated shops and barely seemed wide enough to have a door on the front. It was painted rather plainly on the outside and looked to be rather well maintained, the lack of anything interesting on the outside, it not being overly dilapidated or extremely colorful making it all the more easily missed by the casual looker. However once spotted Harry couldn’t help but walk inside wondering what this small, unnamed shop could possibly hold.

Upon entering Harry was immediately met with sounds and smells galore. The store was packed with animals of all shapes and sizes. And, given the size it had seemed on the outside must have been magiced to be bigger on the inside.

As Harry walked up and down the aisles, looking at each of the animals in the cages and tanks of varying sizes, he heard a voice within the various animal noises. He looked in the direction of the voice, expecting to see some sort of worker, but saw no one.

Harry called out a hello, but upon not hearing a reply walked in the direction he thought he heard the voice. After walking a little ways he heard the voice again, this time sounding as if it were right next to him. Still seeing no one around him he started to look in the tanks and cages in his immediate vicinity, hoping to see something that had the ability to make a human enough sounding voice.

He did not find anything that could make a human sound, but he did find a fantastically colored snake and, remembering what happened in the zoo before his first year he figured that this must be the culprit.

He kneeled down to be eye level with the snake and said, “Did you say something earlier?”

The snake looked up for a moment and seemed to do a double take when it found Harry looking at and speaking to it. 

“This tank is much too small, you can't blame me for complaining now and again, Speaker.” the snake said.

Harry looked at the tank the snake was in. Not knowing much about snakes and how much room they needed he felt he couldn't really judge. The snake fit in the tank, though he did know that this meant nothing - he fit in his cupboard after all and it was much too small for him. The snake was small enough that Harry estimated that it could only wrap itself around his wrist a little more than two times and was yellow and spiny.

“Well why don't you come with me then?” Harry said, smiling at the yellow siney snake.

“Really, Speaker? You would take me from this place?" the snake asked excitedly. 

“If that's what you want.” Harry said, and upon getting an excited and rapid yes he stood and started looking in earnest for a worker.

Upon finding what seemed to be the only person to be working at the store at the very back by the register, he purchased the snake, which turned out to be a rare and rather venomous snake, and the largest tank the store had as well as enough supplies to last the snake a while. He loaded the supplies into the kitchen and the tank into the living space in his trunk and then let his new snake wrap itself around his wrist.

As Harry walked back to the leaky cauldron, picking up what clothing he had not already, he asked his snake, “Do you have a name?"

The snake, quite entranced with the sights and smells of the world around him said, after a moment, “No speaker, I do not.”

Harry thought about it while he walked into the loos in the Leaky Cauldron calling Dobby to take him back to his room at Private Drive. 

When he got to his room he quickly packed everything he owned that wasn't packed away into the cupboard into his new trunk and then climbed in himself. He called Dobby to bring him a weeks worth of food, promising to call him back if he needed anything else and then set about organizing and setting up his new living space inside his trunk, all the while trying to come up with something to call his new snake friend.

It was when he sat down to go through the papers he had gotten from Gringotts that he found a name he liked.

“What do you think about me calling you Newton?” Harry asked the snake.

The yellow snake seemed to think this name over before saying that he did not mind it.

Harry smiled at the snake, Newton, and then continued on with his work sorting through all the new files from Gringotts. He started with Potter, looking at what his parents had had, what they had touched and bestowed upon him. Quickly he became bogged down in the numbers, and so he looked at those vaults that contained things other than money. There seemed to be quite a few very interesting things in some of the vaults, though he wouldn't have access to them until he became Lord Potter. 

When he came to the end of all the non-money possessions sequestered in his vaults he found a list of properties owned by the Potter family. They were marked for quite a few things - protections, last inhabited, etc. - but after each property was a list of names each with a title out beside it.

Harry quickly realised that these were the house elves in charge of each property. Of the many names - up to five at one property and there were 12 or so properties - one stuck out to Harry: Whispy the Head Elf.

Harry had not yet thought much of his plans for the future, he was at the moment relying completely on a house elf who had commitments to another family. Having house elves of his own would solve quite a few of his issues, a reliable way for him to access the outside world.

So Harry, with minimal hesitance, called Whispy to him.

When Whispy appeared she was grinning and seemed to be near vibrating in excitement. She was dressed in well tailored clothes that had the Potter crest embroidered on the front.

“What can Whispy be doing for Mr. Heir Potter sir?” The small elf beamed up at Harry.

Harry was taken aback by the energy of the elf as well as how well she was dressed and he stared at the elf for a long moment, her excitement not waning in the silence. When Harry finally shook out of his shock he smiled down at the elf and said “Well Whispy, I was just looking through my files from Gringotts and it said that you were Head Elf, and I thought you would be the best able to help me.” Whispy seemed to smile even more at this. “You see I'm unable at the moment to get food and other such things for me, Newton here, and my owl and I was hoping that you as Head Elf would know an elf that would be able to help me out.”

Whispy tilted her head to the side curiously and looked up at Harry. She smiled and said, “Whispy can be helping Mr. Heir Potter sir. Whispy be knowing an elf with time to spare. Should Whispy be getting the elf sir?”

Harry grinned happily and nodded as he said, “Yes, please bring the elf here, there are a few more questions I have for you though.” At Whispy’s nod Harry continued. “Could you tell me everything you know about my properties and the elves that work at each one?”

Whispy nodded and told Harry all about his properties - room numbers, last use, what they used to be used for - and about the elves that lived there - how many had been born into the family, those that had died since he went missing - before heading out to get the elf who would be his new personal elf - one that Whispy had said had been born in excess of the deaths and so had no work to do.

Harry spent the few minutes it took for Whispy to return, stacking up the rest of his Gringotts papers that he had yet to get through neatly for him to look through tomorrow after getting a good night’s sleep.

When Whispy did return it was with an elf that looked curiously around as soon as she appeared.

Whispy smiled fondly at her and said, “This bes Vail, Mr. Heir Potter sir, your new personal elf, sir.” Whispy then nodded at Harry and popped back to wherever she came from.

Harry smiled at Vail as she continued to look around his living compartment. “It is nice to meet you Vail.”

And now Vail finally turned and looked up at him, wonder and amazement still filling her eyes. “Is this where you live?” and clearly as an afterthought “Mr. Heir Potter sir.”

“Well, first off, I think you should call me Harry, we're going to be seeing quite a lot of each other from now on. And yes this is sort of where I live though technically we are in my trunk, but I do intend on spending a lot of time in here, including eating and sleeping.”

Vail nodded “Ok Mr...ah Harry.”

Harry gave Vail a short tour of his trunk, introducing her to Newton and explaining how he wanted everything organized. He then took her out into the room he stayed in at the Dursley’s, explaining the basics of his situation, not really going into how awful they were, and introducing her to Hedwig. He asked Vail to, whenever she could, watch out on the house for him in case someone came for him or he had mail.

When Harry fell asleep not much later, having spent most of the day in Diagon, it was with a smile and hope for the future.


	2. The vaults

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry reads some, visits his vaults, reads some more, then leaves for the Weasleys for the rest of the summer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty this is much longer than I thought it was going to be. Definitely mentions of child neglect but Harry doesn't see it like that so its probably really mild.
> 
> Personally I head cannon them as way more abusive than I am likely to write them. I'll add tags if anything changes in that regard.
> 
> Also explanation of wandmates in this chapter as well.

Harry woke the next morning happy for the first time since leaving Hogwarts. His whole life was looking up in a way that it never had before. Harry began the day thinking about all the things he wanted to do with his time now that he had so much he wanted to do. Before, his summer plans had been to survive, but now he could learn, could do his summer homework, could find out what the world he was now a part of was about.

Sitting up with a grin, Harry reached over to his nightstand and grabbed his glasses, planning to read through more of his gringotts papers for the morning, when Vail popped into existence next to the nightstand.

“Vail just came to wake Mi..Harry. Skinny woman be’s yelling for breakfast.” She said as Harry looked over at her.

With a sigh, Harry hopped out of bed, putting his glasses on and making to get dressed in Dudley’s old clothes - he didn’t need his ‘family’ getting mad because he was wearing nice clothes for once - and said, “Thank you Vail, once I’m done, can you find a way to bring me something to eat, I don’t know if I’m going to be up here much today.”

With a concerned look on her face Vail nodded and told Harry that she would make sure that he was well taken care of, then popped off while Harry finished getting ready and headed down stairs to do as his Aunt had asked. Hoping that, however unlikely, his Aunt would do as she had done so far in the summer and not load him down with too many chores.

Sadly his wish was not one to be granted. Aunt Petunia, having not been able to give him any chores the day before doubled the chores he would normally get. And while this number was lessened by the fact that they had been ignoring him more this summer, it was still too much to handle on an empty stomach.

Luckily Vail was having none of Harry slaving away for “unworthy muggles” and so helped him as much as she was able. Harry did insist that she not snap her fingers and have everything done in seconds, mostly because if he got everything done that quickly the Dursleys were sure to notice and punish him for the use of magic. She did however keep him supplied with plenty of food and more than enough water, especially when he went to work in the garden.

Once he was done with his chores he was much too tired to try and decipher what the gringotts ledgers said as well as try and figure out what was expected of him with his homework, so he instead climbed into his library compartment, and began to read.

The first book he picked was about families in the wizarding world and how they worked, and while the topic fascinated Harry, the wording was more than he could handle in his somewhat exhausted state, so he instead began reading one of his books on the classifications of magic.

Harry got through the first few chapters before he was too tired to continue and headed to bed. Those chapters didn't cover much of the particulars and the book as a whole was more of an introductory text than an extensive one. It did inform him that there were three types of magic - Dark, Light, and Grey - and they each had different functions and rarities, and that each wizard and witch had different levels of ability with each.

Harry did briefly wonder, as he fell alseep, which of the types he was best at, but he was much to exhausted to really parse through all of the information he had - and he was lacking quite a lot - and fell asleep before his contemplation even really began.

After that the days tended to follow a pattern. In the morning his Aunt would expect him to make breakfast and then set him on a list of chores that would take him the rest of the day to complete, and quickly got repetitive. Vail would make sure he drank and ate enough throughout the day and at night Harry would read or do his homework.

The book he had first chosen didn't really explain how one was supposed to figure out what type of magic they were good at, but it did give an overview of what types of magic fit into each category.

Grey magic was the most common. Anything that was neither strong Light magic or strong Dark magic was considered Grey. Light magic had strong outward effects and Dark had strong inward effects. Grey was also further segmented into Dark Grey, Light Grey, and True Grey to show which direction it leaned.

Through this information Harry learned that most of the magic learned at Hogwarts was Light Grey magic, or True Grey magic, though Defense Against the Dark Arts seemed to consist of mostly Dark Grey magic.

He wondered about his ability in class. He wasn't really certain what he was best at, he'd only been learning for a year and none of the classes really stood out to him outside of Defense for its usefulness. He wondered if that meant he was a Dark wizard.

The book had explained that the type of magic had no real connection to the political parties, though the political Light tended to be Light wizards and the political Dark tended to be Dark wizards, but the idea of being any sort of Dark wizard still made Harry feel weird, so he put it out of his mind. Maybe he'd be good at Transfiguration or Charms, more light leaning magics, in the end.

Harry also spent some time trying - and mostly failing - to go over his vault paperwork. He understood the physical item sections well enough - he thought - but everything else was a confusing mess. There were too many types of incoming and outgoing payments to truly understand and he quickly gave up.

All of that did help him come to the conclusion that he wanted to explore his vaults for physical items that might prove useful. Especially the Gryffindor and Slytherin vaults.

The two founder vaults were made up entirely of physical objects - which didn't really have much description in the bank statements - that Harry found fascinating. They both mentioned different types of armor and weapons that made something inside Harry soar just thinking about. Journals were mentioned in almost all of the vaults and Harry liked the idea of having an extra link to his family.

So he quickly came to the conclusion that he'd have to make another trip to Gringotts before going to Hogwarts.

It was Vail who came up with the idea for him to act too sick to work one day to ensure that no one at the Dursleys would check in on him while he was out. Vail would still keep watch of course - just in case she needed to pop him back quickly.

It was Harry who decided to do it before his birthday - calling it an early birthday present for himself - after Ron sent a letter inviting him to stay with the Weasleys for the second half of the summer. Harry had almost not agreed to go to the Weasleys' but his wish to not live with the Dursleys any more outweighed his want to spend some time by himself.

So it was a couple days later that Harry was in the ratty uncomfortable old bed in Dudley's second bedroom pretending to be sick. Vail had cast some sort of glamor over him that helped along the illusion. When his Aunt came in she screamed in horror and ordered everyone out of the house so they didn't catch whatever he had.

Harry heard the locks on his door clicking and lots of rummaging around the house - along with quite a few groans from Dudley - before the front door slammed and then everything was silent.

Vail's glamor dissipated and Harry got out of the bed. He was amazed that they had totally left the house - he hadn't really expected it. Though, he supposed, he never had gotten sick before so maybe they thought it was some magical disease and that was why they were so worried.

Either way it didn't bother Harry any. He would have at least that day to himself and there was a chance that they wouldn't be back by the time Ron came to pick him up - his birthday only being a few days away. So he shrugged and had Vail transport him to Diagon.

As he was walking down the street toward Gringotts he noticed how absolutely no one payed much attention to him. This was completely different from his first time through the Alley - though admittedly he had been with Hagrid at the time and he was huge - but it was reminiscent of his last time in the Alley. No one had blinked an eye at him - The Harry Potter - wondering through shops by himself last time he was here.

And then he looked in a window of a shop and realized why. He looked nothing like himself. His hair was blond and his skin much lighter and his eyes blue. His nose was longer and his lips smaller and his cheek bones less pronounced.

He almost screamed.

Instead he continued walking to Gringotts where the teller didn't seem to notice that he didn't look like himself - just allowing him to access his vaults. He supposed they had protections in place in case of fraudulence, but the goblin hadn't seemed concerned at all. Harry had kept his eyes on them the entire time he was in the main hall and they only looked back up for the next customer.

Remembering the glamor that Vail had put on him that morning to make him seem sick he quickly whispered as he was lead to the carts, "Hey Vail, do you know why I don't look like me anymore?"

The goblin leading him looked at him at this raising an eyebrow and then grinning at Harry's embarrassed look.

Vail whispered back in his ear - though Harry couldn't see her, "Yes I put the same glamor on as the one you were wearing when we met."

Harry was shocked by this information - he had been wearing a glamor when they met? Dobby had to have been the one to place it - apparently forgetting to take it off after he dropped him off after the Diagon trip. He was thankful to both their forethought though. He had certainly forgotten that he would need to hide who he was in public.

He rarely ever thought about his fame. It was his least favorite part of the magical world and so he didn't want to think about it. And now was no different so he forcibly stopped thinking about it and focused on the things he could get from the different heir and personal vaults he had access to.

Most of the items owned by family were in the Lordship vaults, but the heir vaults contained a few journals to help heirs and personal vaults held personal journals, unless the person's personal vault no longer existed. The only real exception to this was the Gryffindor and Slytherin vaults, neither of which contained a single knut but were instead filled with things that the members felt the future heirs might need.

The first stop was Harry's personal vault, which contained what was once in the personal vaults willed to him.

It was a quick trip as everything was sorted in the vaults and most of it was money - which he completely ignored. Harry walked to one side of the vault and picked up all the journals there, tucking them into a bag he had brought. There weren't many, each of his parents only had 2 and there were a couple more from some of the people he didn't know.

Harry wasn't certain if he would read the journals of the people who had willed their vaults to someone they didn't know, but he grabbed them just in case. He was curious about these people after all.

The next stop was the Potter heir vault. Harry had already seen it once, but he hadn't known there were books in there last year with Hagrid and had been much too taken with the piles of money to notice them. Even now, knowing that there were several books in the vault he didn't see them immediately upon entering. 

He had to walk around a couple piles of money to finally see them they were stacked on the floor in the back and couldn't be seen from the front. Briefly Harry wondered why this vault wasn't organized the same way as his personal vault, but quickly put it out of his mind as he picked up the 5 books on family magic and history.

With one more look around the vault - to make sure he hadn't missed anything important - Harry nodded his head satisfied he had gotten everything of importance and went back to the cart and goblin waiting for him.

The next stop was the Pothket heir vault. Harry wasn't really certain what he thought about the Pothkets. Or really about any of the non-Potter vaults. He had never heard of the Pothkets, Blacks, or Peverells. He wondered what they were like. If there were any other living members that might take him in. Though given what Dumbledore had said at the end of last year, he probably wouldn't allow Harry to live with anyone but the Dursleys.

The Pothkett heir vault looked way different from his own personal vault and the Potter heir vault. For one there was way less money in it - which made sense given how many personal vaults made up Harry's own and how long ago the last heir had to have been alive for his mother to think herself a Muggleborn. It also had way more books.

There were shelves lining every wall. The journals were easy enough to find. Apparently the family were big on journaling. Each was labeled by person then by year. The books were neither uniform in size nor time period and there were so many of them.

Walking along the edges of the vault and taking them all in, Harry found only two sets of shelves that weren't totally taken up by journals. And even those were mostly journal.

He grabbed all the non-journal books from these shelves - they seemed to mostly cover family magic and history. He also grabbed the journals that covered the last 10 years the family was still depositing journals. It covered 4 different family members and the years 1878 to 1888.

Harry resolved that one day he would read most if not all the journals in the vault and then left to the next vault down.

Now knowing how different the heir vaults could be based on the family Harry was rather apprehensive of the Black heir vault. And given what he had read in the reports he had every reason to be. This would be the first heir vault that wasn't just books and money. There wasn't much else besides that, of course, especially when compared to the founder heir vaults, but it still had a few extras.

Walking in Harry felt he should have been more worried.

Absolutely nothing was organized. Immediately upon entering Harry could see 15 different piles of gold all of differing heights and 16 different tables which seemed to be haphazardly covered in the same 20 items in different patterns.

Harry quickly decided that the money piles could be ignored and went to inspect the tables. Upon closer inspection Harry found that the tables were not covered in the same 20 items. Just 20-ish items of about the same type.

He grabbed the books from each - a couple of journals, family history records, and family magic texts - the rest of the items seemed to be random jewelry and ceremonial daggers.

Harry didn't really pay them any mind until the third to last table. On it was a bracelet made of some dark metal that seemed to be in the shape of a dragon with its wings outstretched and biting its own tail. On the inside words were carved. Some Latin he didn't understand and some squiggly writing that when Harry looked directly at it read "no heat too hot".

He wasn't super certain what the engraving ment, but thought that the bracelet would go rather well with his dragon cuff and slipped it on. To his surprise the dragon shifted, flapping its wings and propelling itself forward and swallowing more of its tail until it fit Harry's wrist more comfortably.

Harry grinned down at it and nearly skipped his way out of the vault once he made sure he had gotten all of the books. Magic was cool and Harry loved being reminded of that.

Upon entering the Pevrell heir vault Harry was shocked. The goblin reports said there was an amount of gold in the vault - admittedly not nearly as much as the other non founder vaults - but he didn't see a single knut of it. Instead he saw shelves and tables lining the walls.

Harry walked around the vault taking it all in. Finding what little money was in the vault near the back on a table and in bags labeled knut, sickle, and galleon.

Once again the shelves were packed with journals - though not nearly as many as the Pothkets and the most recent being much older than the Pothkets were. He grabbed the four most recent ones knowing that they were likely going to be much harder to read than the others and he was going to have his hands full from all the non school reading he had apparently decided to do.

He grabbed all the non journal books too. While there were a couple family magic and family history books he found that most of them seemed to contain fairytales and thought he could probably use the break in the future given just how many books he had grabbed so far.

The things on the table were completely nonsensical to Harry. Unlike the black heir vault very little of it was jewelry and there wasn't a single dagger. Instead it seemed mostly comprised of what Harry could only guess were toys.

Harry stared at it all for a long time before shrugging and decided that none of it was stuff he wanted to bring with him so with one last look around and making sure he had all the books he wanted he climbed back into the cart and headed down to what he was really looking forward to - the founder heir vaults.

They came to the Gryffindor vaults first - as it was slightly higher up.

Harry watched as they slid past multiple vaults with the Gryffindor crest on them before coming to a stop before his.

He was incredibly excited.

According to the papers there was absolutely no money in this vault, but it was absolutely full of things. And when it was opened this was proven true.

The vault seemed to shine as Harry walked in. Upon every surface, lining the walls and hanging from the ceiling was all sorts of glinting metal.

There were swords and daggers and shields and armor and other accoutrement of all different time periods and types. Not all of it was made of metal, of course, after all there seemed to be every weapon ever created in this vault.

Everything was also labeled. And after the Pevrell and Black vaults Harry was incredibly grateful for that. There was a table with protective jewelry, most of which was labeled for those only of Gryffindor blood. Another table much like it was labeled for one's partners. There was yet another table for things that were meant to be a matching set between partners and heirs - some of which had more than two pieces. Some of the things were labeled "wandmate" which Harry knew he had read about but couldn't quite remember where.

Harry walked around the perimeter of the vault, taking his time and checking the labels of everything in case something stuck out to him. As he did, he checked every book he came across. Some he added to the pack he had brought - they being family magic or family history like many others - some he didn't - these tended to correspond with an item he didn't want to take with him.

He did pick up a couple items.

Most of the things weren't nearly subtle enough for Harry's taste, or his convenience. He liked the swords and their flashy gemstones, really he did, but they weren't practical for his life. He wanted to keep as low a profile as he could manage. 

He found a single magically shrinking short sword that, when shrunk, turned into a ring. The label said the ring was worn on the middle finger and when the sword likeness was on the palm side of the ring and the hand was held flat the ring became a sword - briefly sticking to the hand before releasing so the wearer could grab it before it fell. Harry smiled upon finding it and slipped it on to his right middle finger, pocketing the label.

When Harry reached the back he found the journals. There were two that seemed to be by Godric Gryffindor himself that Harry took - not really taking in that they had to have been copies to be in such good shape - and one from what seemed to be the last heir Gryffindor.

Harry kept walking around until he felt he had seen the whole of the vault - only picking up an amulet that detected poisons and one that helped fight against compulsions.

When Harry felt he had gotten everything from the vault that he would truly need he looked back on it one more time before leaving to go to the Slytherin vault. 

Harry was apprehensive of the Slytherin heir vault. Everyone he talked to seemed to think that Slyrherins took after their founder and so were evil, but he was just so curious and no one had ever called him a coward.

When the vault opened it was not at all what he was expecting.

It seemed to mirror the Gryffindor vault. Filled floor to ceiling with weapons and armor and shields, but this time with stealth in mind.

Nothing seemed to be any bigger than a short sword and nothing that was brought much attention to itself at all. Most of the armor was thin or seemed to belong underneath normal clothing. The jewelry seemed smaller, thinner, and made of less eye catching material than the things in the Gryffindor vault.

Harry was fascinated by all of it.

He walked around the room and grabbed the books he felt most important - there were more family magic books in here than any of the other vaults - and kept his eyes out for things he might want.

The first thing to truly call out at him was a set of throwing knives and daggers.

There were 16 in the set, sheaths for all. Most of the throwing knives were in one sheath that went around the waist, but was small enough to easily hide. There were a few that attached to various points on his body, some doubling with the daggers, or wand, or both. There were multiple wand placement options with the set, most of which could be folded if the wand wasn't stored there, the exception being a wrist sheath.

They came with a book that was labeled as a magic teaching device and Harry couldn't resist them. So he packed them into his bag and continued on his way.

The next thing Harry found that he couldn't resist was a short range talking device that attached to the ear. It came with 4 others like it and Harry knew they might be very useful so he grabbed them and their label - which had their instructions of use.

Journals were again in the back and he grabbed the ones from Salazar Slytherin himself and the most recent heir - much more recent than the Gryffindor heir - just like in the Gryffindor vault.

Harry also found gloves made of some sort of snake - Basilisk - skin that claimed to be better than the dragon hide gloves he already owned and he had no reason to believe the labels lied so he put them in his bag as well.

When he finally finished his walk around the vault his pack was stuffed full with mostly books and he was grateful for its lightening charm.

He took one last look at the vault before climbing back into the cart and riding to the surface.

When they arrived Harry thanked the goblin that had taken him, receiving a nod in return, before heading in the direction of the front doors. When he reached the stairs outside he called for Vail and was popped immediately back into the Dursleys' smallest bedroom.

He loaded most of the books into his library compartment - keeping the Potter books out - and the items were placed inside his living compartment. Before he climbed back out. Too curious for his own good, Harry placed the Potter books into one of the basic storage compartments and took his knife set and its corresponding book into the center of the bedroom.

Vail asked him about what they were and he explained where he got them and that he was incredibly curious as to what a magical training book was.

The book wasn't particularly thick. The beginning gave him a description of each knife, its classification, and where it and its sheath went on his body. Harry read through this bit carefully and then attached the sheaths to their correct spot - having to redo quite a few because they were too loose or he had placed them wrong - until they were all placed.

It then gave instructions on how to activate certain of the sheaths invisibility - some were usually covered by clothing and so were incapable - which Harry activated. The book also listed a call word that could be used with a letter to recall a specific knife to its sheath. The book then went to describe the basic information of throwing and using knives and daggers as well as how to make sure they stayed in good condition.

Then on the very last page was the description of a spell that was supposed to bring forth an apparition of some sort that would instruct the usage of the knife set.

Harry stared at the spell for ages, itching to pull his wand out of the sheath on his wrist, before convincing himself that he needed to wait for Hogwarts to use it. Still - he reasoned - it was probably a good idea to get used to the weight of them if he wanted to use them in the future.

By the time he finished all of this the sun had long set and he took up the book and went into his trunk to sleep.

The next few days - while he waited for Ron and the Weasleys to arrive - were mostly spent reading. He spent a couple minutes debating reading the Potter books - which while tempting brought on his fear of rejection - or picking out one of the many different books to read. He spent these minutes pacing the library when he eyes alighted on a book on wandmates, which he remembered being confused about the day before.

The book wasn't particularly thick and so he managed to get through it rather quickly.

The book explained that wandmates were sort of like soulmates. They signified that a person would have a great deal of importance in another person's life. They weren't inherently romantic nor did you have to even like the person, but they would be tied to your life forever. Upon being in a certain radius - depending on the strength of the bond - of the person and their wand the wands would heat up and vibrate get stronger the closer they got.

Bonds came in three strengths - weak, medium, and strong. Weak bonds were recorded to take time before the wands heat up and might need to be reasserted - tapping the wands - to maintain it. These are easily over written by stronger bonds. Once the bond is asserted the same mark would appear in the same place on both people and would not move - though it may fade with the income of a stronger bond or great or prolonged distance between the pair.

Medium bonds never need to be reasserted and always heat up on the first instance of being in proximity - though the first instance may have a smaller proximity than after. Once asserted a mark is formed on both people - usually the same mark. This mark can move - though this would happen slowly and usually signify a rather big shift in one of the wandmate's lives. The pair will usually experience an exchange of emotional or physical experiences.

Strong bonds are incredibly similar to medium bonds with some exceptions. The marks upon assertion are rarely ever the same and often react to one or both of the pair's emotions or wishes. They easily move around on the body. The pair is also likely to be able to speak to each other telepathically and there is nearly always an exchange of emotion and physical experience.

Wands can sense the nearing of a stronger bond and so may alert their owner or end the weaker bond as it gets nearer. Wands have never been known to have more than one bond at a time, though wizards or witches who use more than one wand at a time are known to have more than one bond if the wands bond to different wands.

The book went on to give examples of different types of bonds in history and other sorts of evidence to back up what it had said.

Harry found this fascinating. He wondered why no one had thought to mention this to him during his first year at hogwarts. 

He wondered if his parents were wandmates.

After that book he started reading the Potter family history books. Avoiding his parents journals and the family magic books. Just looking at his parents' journals made his stomach role and knowing that he wouldn't be able to practice any magic kept him from the books.

He spent the next few days reading over the history books. They covered alliances and feuds and animosities between the Potters and all the other families and how that changed over time. They covered the people born to the family and who they married and how many kids they had. They covered significant events in the Potter history - including a few prophecies recorded about a Potter.

They covered everything. But they were also dry and sometimes stilted. Harry found himself on several occasions with his eyes blurring at the words printed in front of him. he loved learning his family history, but it was hard and took him all of the days leading up to Ron's arrival to work through most of them and he still didn't understand much of it.

He hadn't quite gotten to his parents - though he thought he was just a generation or two off - when the knock on the front door came.

Vail had long ago unlocked the door to the room he was staying in so Harry brought his things down the stairs and then opened the door just a crack to see who was outside of it.

He was met by a man with red hair and a wide grin wearing the most mismatched muggle clothing Harry had ever seen. His shirt was inside out and backwards with the tag showing at his neck and was a shade of purple that Harry had never seen before. He wore a jacket that was somehow bright orange and well worn and also a couple sizes too small. His trousers were green.

Harry smiled.

"Mr. Weasley?" He asked the man who stood over a foot above him.

"Ah, yes Mr. Potter I presume? Ron's told us all lots about you." There was a slight awkward silence here as Harry watched the car behind the man - Mr. Weasley - empty of 6 more people.

"Let me just leave a note for my aunt and then I'll bring my stuff out." Harry said and slowly shut the door. He ran around the house locating paper and pen to write a note telling his Aunt where he had gone and not to expect him back until the end of the next school year.

Harry smiled when that was done and then checked the bedroom to make sure he had everything before opening up the front door again. He made sure to lock the front door before piling into the car - somehow much bigger on the inside than it should be but still too small for all the people inside it - with the 7 Weasleys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did reread it and I didn't see a good spot to split it up so I guess I'm just ganna write long ass chapters.
> 
> I have not started work on chapter 3 yet, but it might be shorter than this one since not much is going to happening between now and the start of the school year. Though it should be kept in mind that he'll probably read his parents' journals next so who knows.

**Author's Note:**

> Right so First chapter - woo! - let's everyone remember that Harry is 11, about to turn 12. He's not ganna think through things rationally, that's why I'm giving him a best friend who thinks with her brain.  
> Anywho Chapter 2 will be out soon - I'm almost finished with it. It won't be nearly as long as this one (I'm pretty sure) so don't worry.  
> Also I completely guessed on the number of chapters who knows if that'll stick.  
> Kasper out.


End file.
